Some ancient, traditional, and present Eastern health and medical practices involve the concept and theory of an invisible life-energy that permeates the environment, and circulates in the human body via a system of channels and gateways. This invisible life-energy is called “qi” or “chi”. Certain Eastern medical treatments involve delivering and improving the flow of this life-energy to the ill. One such example is acupuncture, which uses acupuncture needles punctured through a patient's skin to gateways to his or her life-energy channels to derive energy from the environment to unblock the patient's blockage in his life-energy flow.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture is widely practiced all over the world for enhancing health and treating illnesses. To practice acupuncture, the practitioner inserts small gauge needles through skin, ranging from approximately 2 mm to 2.5 cm deep, into specific sets of points in a system of meridians. The acupuncture treatment is based on twelve meridians on each side of the body and two master meridians along the center line of the body. These meridians are channels where life-energy circulates. Each meridian contains from about twenty-five to about one-hundred fifty acupuncture points. The points where the acupuncture needles are inserted are the specific sites located in the superficial cutaneous layer generally beneath the surface skin, and above the muscle regions, through which the life-energy is gated to the body surface. External energy can be gated into the meridians to help open blocked life-energy flow.
The acupuncture needles used in traditional acupuncture are very fine, requiring accurate location and depth insertion to produce effective results, and to not accidentally insert the needles into a nerve, a blood vessel, or a wrong point, causing pain, bleeding, and/or undesirable results. These risks make the practice of traditional acupuncture difficult to master, and patients reluctant to visit an acupuncturist. Recently, acupuncture practitioners have turned to the use of electrical energy instead of needles. The use of electrical energy has the advantage of being non-invasive. This is particularly advantageous for those individuals who are concerned about the use of needles in the procedure.